Melica porteri |
Melica montezumae |
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Porter melic, Porter's melic, Porter's melicgrass |
Montezuma melic, Montezuma melicgrass |
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Habit | Plants not or loosely cespitose, shortly rhizomatous. | Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous. | ||||
Culms | 55-100 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth, basal internodes not thickened. |
14-100 cm, not forming corms; internodes smooth. |
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Sheaths | often scabrous on the keels, otherwise smooth; ligules 1-7 mm; blades 2-5 mm wide, both surfaces glabrous, scabridulous. |
glabrous or scabrous; ligules 2.5-7 mm; blades 1.2-3 mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous, scabridulous, adaxial surfaces puberulent. |
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Panicles | 13-25 cm; branches 1-9 cm, straight and appressed or flexible and ascending to strongly divergent, with 1-12 spikelets; pedicels sharply bent below the spikelets; disarticulation below the glumes. |
5-25 cm; branches 1-5 cm, appressed to reflexed, straight, with 2-9 spikelets; pedicels sharply bent below the spikelets; disarticulation below the glumes. |
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Spikelets | 8-16 mm long, 1.5-5 mm wide, parallel-sided when mature, with 2-5 bisexual florets; rachilla internodes 1.9-2.1 mm. |
6-8 mm, with 1 bisexual floret. |
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Glumes | green, pale, or purplish-tinged; lower glumes 3.5-6 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 5-8 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, 5-veined; lemmas 6-10 mm, glabrous, chartaceous on the distal 1/3, 5-11-veined, veins conspicuous, apices rounded to acute, unawned; paleas about 2/3 the length of the lemmas; anthers 1-2.5 mm; rudiments 1.8-5 mm, acute to acuminate, resembling the bisexual florets. |
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Lower glumes | 5.5-8 mm long, 1.8-3 mm wide, 5-veined; upper glumes 5-8 mm long, 0.7-1.5 mm wide, 3-5-veined; lemmas 4.5-8 mm, 9-15-veined, veins prominent, tuberculate, proximal portion with flat, twisted hairs, distal portion glabrous, chartaceous, apices emarginate to acute, unawned; paleas about 3/4 the length of the lemmas; anthers 1.5-3 mm; rudiments 2-3 mm, obovoid or obconic, clublike, not resembling the bisexual florets. |
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2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
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Melica porteri |
Melica montezumae |
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Distribution |
AZ; CO; KS; NM; TX; UT
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TX |
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Discussion | Melica porteri grows on rocky slopes and in open woods, often near streams. It grows from Colorado and Arizona to central Texas and northern Mexico. Living plants are sometimes confused with Bouteloua curtipendula; the similarity is superficial. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Melica montezumae grows primarily in shady locations in the mountains of western Texas and adjacent Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 98. | FNA vol. 24, p. 98. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Scribn. | Piper | ||||
Web links |